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This race should be significantly less exciting now that OPQS are riding for Cavendish, which means they'll want an easy race. Hopefully some of the other teams are up to the task of splitting the field.

This race should be significantly less exciting now that OPQS are riding for Cavendish, which means they'll want an easy race. Hopefully some of the other teams are up to the task of splitting the field.

Lol, teams don't split the field here.

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Originally Posted by Ryo Hazuki

horrible. boonen just the same guy as years before and this course is too hard for him. that's why he rode like a coward there were at least 3 guys stronger than boonen today and none of them won: sagan, ballan, pozzato

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Hitch

Goss will woop boonens candy ass in a sprint he cares about, any day of the week

Yea they do. One team has to start, or nothing happens. Depends on the wind though, if it's insanely strong then there will be splits anyway.

Lol, that's not how it works.

If there are heavy crosswinds teams will want to keep their best riders in the front. This will automatically increase the pace and cause splits. Everyone who doesn't want to be thrown out the back has to co-operate in an echelon, that includes Cavendish. Why else do you think Leipheimer and Bradley Wiggins were actively taking turns during stage 2 in Paris-Nice last year?

Considering Qatar is a flat country, in the middle of a desert, close to the sea, there will be the risk of crosswinds where ever they go. It's not just one specific location like in some European races, but the entire race is windy.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryo Hazuki

horrible. boonen just the same guy as years before and this course is too hard for him. that's why he rode like a coward there were at least 3 guys stronger than boonen today and none of them won: sagan, ballan, pozzato

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Hitch

Goss will woop boonens candy ass in a sprint he cares about, any day of the week

Radioshack just announced the team they're sending and they can be considered favourites. They have Cancellara, Devolder, Gallopin, Irizar, Oliveira, Rast and Roulsten. The time trial isn't that long, 14Km.

LOL. King of the mountains jersey

More like King of the Sand dunes.

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Originally Posted by diggercuz

second post ever after reading the forum for the last few years and one thing i must say, ACF94 is probably the most intelligent poster here, never biased to BMC or Cadel, and never gets worked up over anything.

More than likely Cavendish showing off his new team kit with a few stage wins,maybe an upset stage for Modolo/Degenkolb?TTT will be won by either Radioshack/Sky.As others have posted im hoping for a couple of really windy days to help make the race more exciting.Im happy just to see some more racing really"

As for Blanco, aren't they invited or are they just ignoring this race? I hope for the latter, as European and US based teams (Aussie teams too tbh) should be ignoring snoozefests like these. Wanna race on the other side of the world? Then give Australia some more races, they actually have been producing top cyclists for some time now. I can't imagine one team being really happy about having just to cycle this race knowing they're Pat's b**tch.

It's amazing how many people take one glance at the profiles and assume it's a dull race. You have to go back a long time to find no echelon racing in Qatar. Go ahead, see if you can find me an edition where every stage was a bunch sprint (and a sprint from a group of 20 when the rest of the race is in about nine other groups doesn't count of course )

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Quote:

...[Walsh] thinks we're ahead of the curve. But think about it for a sec. We're building long-lasting, trusting relationships with people who are spending a lot of money - Coke, Nike, Subaru. If we're f***ing lying, we can kiss it all goodbye. And if we were lying we'd do some stupid stuff to try to cover it up, wouldn't we? Does anybody think for a second that a secret that big wouldn't come out? Bill Stapleton

As for Blanco, aren't they invited or are they just ignoring this race? I hope for the latter, as European and US based teams (Aussie teams too tbh) should be ignoring snoozefests like these. Wanna race on the other side of the world? Then give Australia some more races, they actually have been producing top cyclists for some time now. I can't imagine one team being really happy about having just to cycle this race knowing they're Pat's b**tch.

Not invited. They'd have loved to ride probably, they need all the publicity they can get (which of course is not much, in Holland).